Songs That Change Tempo: Famous Records Measured Beat by Beat
· 6 min read
BPM sites list one tempo per song. We measured every beat of eleven well-known records with the beat tracker behind the click track maker. Seven of them change tempo by 4 to 31 BPM between the first bar and the last. Four stay within half a BPM for the whole song.
If the backing track is on your computer, hear CountIn count it in on beat one. Listening is free and needs no account.
Summary
| Song | Artist | Start | End | Change | Fixed click off by the end |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stairway to Heaven | Led Zeppelin | 71 | 102 (peak 103) | +31 | 103 beats |
| Honky Tonk Women | The Rolling Stones | 113 | 126 | +13 | 22 beats |
| Zombie | The Cranberries | 80 | 88 | +8 | 19 beats |
| Smoke on the Water | Deep Purple | 111 | 119 | +8 | 20 beats |
| September | Earth, Wind & Fire | 123 | 128 | +5 | 8 beats |
| Superstition | Stevie Wonder | 99 | 103 | +4 | 12 beats |
| Let It Be | The Beatles | 75 | 68 | -7 | 14 beats |
| Hotel California | Eagles | 73.7 | 73.6 | 0 | under 1 beat |
| Billie Jean | Michael Jackson | 116.7 | 116.7 | 0 | under 1 beat |
| Get Lucky | Daft Punk | 116.0 | 116.0 | 0 | under 1 beat |
| Uptown Funk | Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars | 115.1 | 115.0 | 0 | under 1 beat |
Start and end: median tempo of the first and last twenty seconds. Last column: beats played by the band minus beats a click at the opening tempo would play in the same time. At 4 beats the click is one bar of 4/4 off.
Stairway to Heaven
| Time | 0:00 | 2:00 | 2:20 | 4:00 | 4:40 | 5:40 | 6:20 | 7:00 | 7:40 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BPM | 71 | 71 | 80 | 84 | 87 | 94 | 99 | 103 | 96 |
Two steps, at 2:20 and 5:40, with slower climbs between them. Peak tempo is 45 percent above the opening.
Honky Tonk Women
| Time | 0:00 (cowbell) | 0:20 | 0:40 | 1:00 | 1:40 | 2:20 | 2:40 | end |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BPM | 113 | 116 | 120 | 121 | 123 | 125 | 125 | 126 |
A continuous rise with no step: 8 BPM in the first minute, 5 more in the next two.
Zombie
| Time | 0:00 | 1:00 | 2:00 | 3:00 | 3:40 | 4:00 | 4:40 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BPM | 80 | 83 | 83 | 84 | 86 | 88 | 88 |
Most of the change comes in two places: the first minute (+3) and 3:40 to 4:00 (+2).
Smoke on the Water
| Time | 0:00 (riff) | 0:40 | 2:00 | 3:00 | 4:00 | 5:00 | 5:20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BPM | 111 | 114 | 114 | 117 | 116 | 118 | 119 |
The tempo rises at 3:00, drops back by 1 to 2 BPM, then rises again over the last minute.
September
| Time | first bars | 0:20 | 1:00 | 2:00 | 3:00 | 3:20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BPM | 120 | 124 | 127 | 127 | 128 | 128 |
The first bars are near 120; the summary's 123 is the median of the first twenty seconds. Every change after that is upward.
Superstition
| Time | 0:00 (drums) | 0:40 | 1:00 | 2:20 | 2:40 | 3:20 | 4:00 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BPM | 99 | 100 | 101 | 103 | 101 | 103 | 103 |
Two peaks at 103, around 2:20 and 3:20, with a dip to 101 between them.
Let It Be
| Time | 0:00 (piano) | 0:20 | 1:00 | 1:40 | 2:20 | 3:00 | 3:40 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BPM | 73 | 75 | 72 | 70 | 68 | 69 | 68 |
The only record of the eleven that slows down. A click at the opening tempo runs ahead of the band, 14 beats by the end.
Hotel California, Billie Jean, Get Lucky, Uptown Funk
| Song | Lowest | Highest | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hotel California | 73.5 | 73.9 | 6:30 |
| Billie Jean | 116.5 | 116.9 | 4:56 |
| Get Lucky | 116.0 | 116.1 | 4:09 |
| Uptown Funk | 114.9 | 115.1 | 4:31 |
Lowest and highest are 20-second medians. A click at one fixed tempo stays within one beat of each of these four records to the end, so a single BPM number is accurate for them.
How we measured
- Source: the version on the artist's official YouTube channel or official audio upload. Remasters and single edits can differ by a few seconds, so times are approximate.
- Beats: beat_this (Foscarin et al., Johannes Kepler University Linz, ISMIR 2024).
- Tempo at each point: a straight line fitted through 16 consecutive beats, stepped every 4 beats. One early or late hit does not move it; a real tempo change does.
- Not included: songs made of sections at different tempos, such as Bohemian Rhapsody. Each section there has its own tempo, which is a different measurement.
Playing one of these with a click
A click at one tempo does not fit the seven records in the first part of the table. In a DAW the usual fix is a tempo map placed by hand. The click track maker reads the beats from your recording, adds a count-in and puts a click on each beat, so the click follows the recording. For a count-in only, use the count-in tool. Background: what a click track is. Tempo of any file: BPM finder.
Frequently asked questions
Which famous songs change tempo the most?
Of the records we measured, Stairway to Heaven: from 71 BPM in the opening to about 102 by the solo, 43 percent faster. Honky Tonk Women rises from 113 to 126, Zombie from 80 to 88 and Smoke on the Water from 111 to 119. Let It Be goes the other way, from 75 to 68.
Why do songs speed up?
Most records made before click tracks became normal were played by a band together, and bands push as the song builds: the chorus gets louder, the drummer leans forward, and nobody in the room hears it because everyone moves at once. A record made to a click, like Billie Jean or Get Lucky, cannot drift.
What BPM is Hotel California?
About 74 BPM, and it holds it: our measurement stays between 73.5 and 73.9 from the first bar to the last.
Why does a BPM website give a different number?
A single number for a song that moves is an average, or the tempo of one part. For Stairway to Heaven any single number is wrong for most of the song. For songs that hold their tempo, like Billie Jean at 117, the BPM sites and the measurement agree.
If the backing track is on your computer, hear CountIn count it in on beat one. Listening is free and needs no account.
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